Funny Book Practice

       

       Something like two months ago, I found myself bored and sitting around with nothing to do, when Wizard World Chicago tickets went on sale. I grabbed one and hit the convention, not before pausing to ask myself, "I wonder if I should bring samples of my work?" After bouncing the idea around  a few times, I decided (now to my chagrin) that it would be the comic book equivalent to giving your favorite musician a demo of your band and expecting them to take you seriously. Sadly, every artist I met that weekend - EVERY ONE - asked if I had a portfolio on hand, one even going as far as to lecture me in the 'this is how I got MY job' style, which hurt. So, living the last two months in regret, I've decided to take it seriously for next years convention. My coloring is still lacking, to the point that I won't post it (yet), but here are some ink drawings of some characters I've been practicing on.

       Ever since my first viewing of the MASTERPIECE that is The Dark Knight, the Joker's been in my head. Here's my rendition. It's more 'Joker' than 'Heath,' but I like the way it turned out.

       If your looking for a super-good time (Gawd...) check out Tom De Haven's It's Superman! Not only is it a fantastic Superman novel, it takes place in the pre-WWII, Sky Captain type of mythos. Very good, somewhat steam-punk, in my interpretation.

       Last and certainly not least, The Escapist! The focus character of the AMAZING book I'm almost finished with, The Escapist is one of the best plot-devices I have had the pleasure to encounter. The glory, the outright HUMANITY of the story of messieurs Kavalier and Clay has me tight in its grip. While sketching the actual protagonists has little draw, the product of their imagined imaginations has been littering up quite a few of my sketchbook pages lately. Also, it's got me wanting to draw like the old golden age masters... fewer lines, fatter pens, realistic anatomy... bee-yoo-tee-full!

Is a gallery not a gallery when... in a bank?

       A month or so ago, I was invited by to participate as one of four artist to display in my bank's seasonal art show, cleverly titled, Artists Among Us. My self and three others had a month or two to get some work together to show (and hopefully sell) at the bank. As you might gather from this 'daily' blog, I struggle with deadlines and upkeep. I almost always hit the deadline, but, more often than not, its a becomes a scramble the week preceding said deadline. But, I made it, and here are the pictures to prove it. Besides the obvious ink jobs, these are charcoal on watercolor paper. The inks are on watercolor and bristol.

Here's the whole spread, in the big office. Oh, yeah, they gave me the big office.

 A glum looking Martha

This is my pal Brenna, in india ink.

Marthy in inks.

Another good friend, Jason, looking very Roman in charcoal.

Working for the weekend... And it's only Tuesday!

    

   The "plan" for today's "post" was to "draw" some batman "pages" for my portfolio. Sorry about all of the quotes. Anyway, I need to get my portfolio together for the comic book people. Seriously. What happened instead was that I worked a long day and then had a few early evening obligations to see to, then watched too much of The O.C. (season 2) to get anything else done.  But, don't worry, dear reader(s?), today wasn't a complete loss!

       One or two days a week, I work with a 

mural and faux-finishing studio. Today, we fauxed all day in a big crazy mansion. It was exhausting, and involved a lot of smearing and pressing with a trowel and a couple of metal spatulas. The house was unbelievable huge and VERY fancy. Oh, and, just so you know... my hands are still crusty.

That's A-GLAZE-ING!

       The finishing touch for my current series of paintings has eluded me for the six or so months that I've put in. Having finished the paintings, I first thought letting the natural wood texture show under the paint a good idea, but I kept bouncing back and forth between thinking it charming and distracting. At the time (February?) I had decided on a satin finish polyurethane... which, it turned out accentuated certain grains and let others lay flat, leaving me with an inconsistent finish. After some research and test runs, and many discussion with gruff paint store regulars, I settled on this magical stuff.

       It's a little pricey, but man-oh-man, check out this sheen! This is after a six hour dry time. Check out that lamp! In a larger picture, you can even see me and my phone in the reflection!

Of course, I had to do some pretty crafty dry-box building. I don't even have  a picture of the mess that is the dry box for the larger paintings! After such a wait and investment, I'm happy to say that I adore the look it achieves, and hope everyone who sees them will agree.

       I'm having a show the first weekend of October at Marguerite Gardens, a flower shop that's serving as a gallery during Andersonville Arts Weekend. I'll put something more detailed up, as the details take shape. Here are a few pictures of some of the paintings that will be featured. 

The Ol' Switcheroo

       Benrumback.com has fallen into disrepair... in fact, it was never very hot to begin with. This is the new benrumback.com, just have to get the domain transferred... for now, it'll just be what it is. Here's the first entry into this brave new blog: a sample from my portfolio for you, dear reader, to ogle.